#Vallejo Times Herald Live

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The Zodiac Killer

The self-proclaimed Zodiac Killer is an unidentified American serial killer. He took credit of several murders in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1968 and 1969, but only five are directly linked to him. He taunted police and made threats through letters sent to newspapers in the area from 1969 to 1974. The police never caught him. The mystery surrounding the murders has inspired numerous books and movies, like Dirty Harry, in 1971, Zodiac, in 2007, and Awakening of the Zodiac, in 2017.

Zodiac Killer’s murders timeline

DEC. 20, 1968  The first confirmed murders attributed to the Zodiac Killer took place on the night of December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, just inside Benicia city limits. The victims were high school students David Faraday and his girlfriend Betty Lou Jensen, who were shot to death in their car; shortly after 11:00 p.m., their bodies were found by Stella Borges, who lived nearby. 

Newspaper page about the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen

JULY 4, 1969   Just before midnight on July 4, 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau, her boyfriend, were sitting in a parked car in Blue Rock Springs Park, Vallejo. A car parked beside them, almost immediately drove away, and then came back after 10 minutes; the driver exited the vehicle and approached the couple with a flashlight. He shot them seven times each. Within an hour, a man called the Vallejo Police Department to report and claim responsibility for the attack; he also took credit for the murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen of six and a half months earlier.

Photos of  David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen

SEPT. 27, 1969    On the evening of September 27, 1969, the Zodiac Killer approached Cecelia Shepard and her boyfriend Bryan Hartnell as they were picnicking on a shore of Lake Berryessa, in Napa County. The man was wearing a black hood with clip-on sunglasses over the eye-holes, and a bib-like device on his chest that had a circle-cross symbol on it. He approached them with a gun, claiming to be an escaped convict from a prison, and told Shepard to tie up Hartnell, before tying her up. The man drew a knife and stabbed them both repeatedly, badly injuring the couple, then went back to their car and drew the cross-circle symbol with the inscription "Vallejo/12-20-68/7-4-69/Sept 27–69–6:30/by knife". At 7.40 p.m. on the same day, he called the Napa Police Department, to report and claim responsibility for the attack. When the police arrived, Shepard was still alive and described the attacker; she died two days later at the hospital, while Hartnell survived.

Photos of Cecelia Shepard and  Bryan Hartnell

OCT. 11, 1969    Two weeks later, on October 11, 1969, taxi driver Paul Stine was found dead inside his taxi. He was shot in the head by a white male passenger, who had requested to be taken to Maple Street; for strange reasons Stine did not stop there but one block after, in Cherry Street. Three teenagers that lived across the street witnessed the passenger shooting Stine, and called the police while the crime was still occurring; they also stated that before running away, the man wiped the cab down. In the meantime, two policemen, Don Fouke and Eric Zelms, noticed a white man walking and entering inside one of the houses in the street; the suspect they were looking out for was supposedly black, and since the man they witnessed was white they did not stop him. As the murder did not seem to fit the Zodiac’s pattern it was initially thought to be a robbery, until the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter from the Zodiac Killer claiming the crime.

Crime scene of Paul Stine’s murder

MARCH 22, 1970    On the night of March 22, 1970, Kathleen Johns was driving with her newborn daughter on Highway 132 near Modesto, when a driver flashed his headlights at them. Johns pulled off the road and stopped, and so did the man; he told her that her right rear wheel was wobbling, and offered to tighten the lug nuts. After doing such, the man drove off, and when Johns pulled forward to re-enter the highway, the wheel almost immediately came off the car. The man came back and offered to drive her and her daughter to the nearest gas station. He drove them around for a long time, passing several gas stations, and when he stopped at an intersection Johns jumped out the car with her daughter and hid in a field. She later identified her kidnapper as the man depicted in a wanted poster for Paul Stine's murder, the Zodiac. Police never officially attributed the incident to the Zodiac.

Newspaper talking about Kathleen Johns kidnapping attempt

During the 1990s, many investigators claimed to have identified the Zodiac Killer; the most likely and most often cited suspect was Arthur Leigh Allen, a Vallejo schoolteacher who had been institutionalized for child molestation.            The police were able to create a sketch of the Zodiac, using the descriptions of several witnesses; for example, the three teenagers who saw the man leaving the scene of Paul Stine’s murder, and Kathleen Johns, who identified the man that tried to kidnap her from the sketch of the Zodiac. Despite the mounting evidence and the numerous suspects, the killer remained at large.

Sketch of the Zodiac Killer made by the San Francisco police department

Letters and cyphers

The Zodiac sent several letters containing cyphers to various newspapers located in San Francisco, the San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Vallejo Times-Herald. The newspapers received the first letter on August 1, 1969, where the killer took credit for the Benicia and Vallejo murders. To convince the police that he was the author of the murders, he included details that only the killer could have known. Each letter was closed by a circle with a cross through it, that would later become the Zodiac Killer’s symbol. High school teacher Donald Harden and his wife, Bettye, were able to solve the first cypher. 

A couple of days after the murder of Paul Stine, on October 15, 1969, the San Francisco Chronicle received another letter from the Zodiac, where he took credit for the murder; this is also the first letter in which the killer uses the name “Zodiac”. At the end of the letter, the killer mused that he would next shoot out the tire of a school bus and "pick off the kiddies as they come bouncing out". The Zodiac Killer continued sending letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, where he claimed to have committed several more murders and mocked the police for their inability to catch him. The letters stopped in 1974.

In 2020, after 51 years, one of the messages written in code and attributed to the Zodiac Killer has been solved. The cypher does not reveal the killer's identity, however, it confirms his image as an attention-seeking killer who revelled in terrorizing the Bay Area in the late 1960s. 

The three men who decrypted the code are David Oranchak, a software developer in Virginia, Sam Blake, an applied mathematician in Melbourne, Australia, and Jarl Van Eycke, a warehouse operator and computer programmer in Belgium. The F.B.I., which employs a team of code-crackers in its Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit, said they had verified Mr Oranchak’s claim of having broken the code. 

It read: “I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me that wasn’t me on the TV show which brings up a point about me I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradice all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me where everyone else has nothing when they reach paradice so they are afraid of death I am not afraid because I know that my new life is life will be an easy one in paradice death.”

Though he had claimed to be responsible for 37 deaths, no Zodiac victims have been discovered since 1969, and in both the known and presumed Zodiac murders no suspect was ever arrested. Since the Faraday-Jensen murders, the inability to identify the Zodiac Killer has continued to frustrate law enforcement.

Sources:

Zodiac Killer - Biography

The coded message has been solved - New York Times

Zodiac Killer -  Wikipedia

Zodiac Killer Timeline - San Francisco Chronicle

#true crime #zodiac killer #crime #serial killer #unsolved crime #cypher #340 cypher

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The Infamous Case of The Zodiac Killer

January 29, 2021

This has to be one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the history of true crime. Right up there with the Jack the Ripper and The Black Dahlia cases, the identity of the Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized California in the late 1960’s remains unknown, though there are some very likely suspects that do fit the description of the killer and his MO.

Like with all the unsolved mysteries I cover on here I want you guys to tell me who you think is the most likely suspect, who do you think the identity of the Zodiac is? 

On the night of December 20th, 1968 two high school students named Betty Lou Jensen who was 16 and David Arthur Faraday, 17, went on their first date. The couple visited a friend first, before going to a local restaurant and then decided to drive down Lake Herman Road instead of the city limits of Benicia. Around 10:15 pm David parked his car in what was known as being a “lover’s lane.” 

After 11 pm the bodies of Betty Lou and David were found by a woman named Stella Borges, who lived nearby. The Solano County Sheriff’s Department was called to the case and conducted an investigation but there was nothing to go off of, there were no leads. A man named Robert Graysmith using the forensic data that was available from the scene suspected that another car had parked next to the couple’s that night. Whoever was driving that car exited out of their car, walked towards the couples car and ordered Betty Lou and David out of the car. Betty Lou appeared to have exited the car first, and when David was halfway out the person shot him in the head. The killer shot Betty Lou 5 times in the back as she tried to run away. Her body was found 28 feet away from the car. 

Before midnight on the night of July 4, 1969 Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau drove four miles away from Lake Herman Road, where the first murders took place. They drove to the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo to park. At one point a second car drove up to the couple and parked beside them but then quickly drove away. This is very suspicious to me because what would be the reasoning for this? Did the Zodiac contemplate whether or not to kill this couple? Very suspicious.

About 10 minutes later the car pulled up again, this time parking behind the couple. The driver exited the car, approaching the passenger side door of the couples car. The killer was holding a flashlight and a 9 mm Luger. The killer flashed the light into the eyes of Darlene and Michael and then proceeded to shoot them, firing his gun 5 times. The killer then walked away but heard Michael moaning in pain and returned to shoot each victim twice more. The killer then drove off. Miraculously, Michael Mageau survived the shooting, however Darlene passed away. 

The craziest part of this shooting is that around 12:40 am on July 5, 1969, so very shortly after the attack a man called the Vallejo Police Department to report the shooting and confess to being the killer. The killer also confessed to the Lake Herman Road killings that happened 6 months prior. The police did trace this phone call to a phone booth at a gas station at the Springs Road and Tuolumne, which was only a few blocks from the Vallejo Police Department. Because Michael survived he was actually able to give the police a good description of his attacker. The killer was described as a white male with short, light brown curly hair, about 26-30 years old, 195-200 pounds, possibly more, 5 ft 8 inches tall. 

So you would think great, the police now have a good description of the man responsible for the murders so it will be easier to solve. Super wrong. 

If you know anything about serial killers you know that most of them are extremely egotistical, and love to take credit for their work. In doing so, a lot of these killers like to taunt the police, and intrigue the media, make it a fun game to catch them and one of the main ways to do this is to send letters. 

Three letters were sent to the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Examiner on August 1, 1969. All of the letters were pretty much identical, with a psychiatrist describing the letters as written by someone who you would expect to be “brooding and isolated.” Each letter talked about the two murders and included one third of a 408 cipher which the killer claimed if it could be deciphered his identity would be known. The killer wanted each letter to be printed on the front of these newspapers, threatening to kill more people if they did not obey. 

The San Francisco Chronicle published the cryptogram on page 4 of the next day’s paper. However, the police weren’t exactly sure if the letter was written by the murderer and wanted him to write a second letter with more facts to prove he was the killer.  

On August 7, 1969 another letter was received and started with, “Dear Editor, This is the Zodiac speaking” which was the first time the killer used a name for himself. The letter was responding to the police asking for a second letter with the Zodiac including details that were not released to the public yet. 

The next day, August 8, 1969 a couple living in Salinas, California named Donald and Bettye Harden cracked the cryptogram that the Zodiac sent. In the message the Zodiac referred to “The Most Dangerous Game.” The Zodiac also discussed how his reasoning for killing people was to “collect slaves for the afterlife.” However, there was no name given to identify the Zodiac’s true identity, as was promised because the killer said if he gave away his identity it would slow down or stop him from collecting slaves. 

The murder took place on September 27, 1969 college students Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were on a picnic date at Lake Berryessa when suddenly a man approached them. He was white, about 5 feet 11 inches, weighing over 170 pounds with combed greasy brown hair. He was wearing a black executioner’s-type hood with clip on sunglasses over the eye holds and a bib that had what was later known to be the zodiac’s symbol in white. Can I just point out that I love that they used the word bib? Like this motherfucker was really walking around with a bib on. 

The man came up to the couple and was holding what appeared to be a .45 caliber. The man spoke to the students telling them that he had escaped from jail in either Colorado or Montana (which I don’t understand why he didn’t know especially since he was probably lying). A police officer later believed that the man was talking about a jail in Deer Lodge Montana. The man told the students he needed their car and money to go to Mexico. 

The man then demanded Cecilia to tie up Bryan with a plastic clothesline before he planned to tie her up as well. The man then checked and had to tighten Bryan’s bonds because Cecilia had tied them too loose. The man then stabbed both of them repeatedly, with Bryan suffering 6 wounds and Cecilia 10. The man then left the scene, walked back to the couple’s car, drew the zodiac symbol on the car door and then proceeded to write the dates of the other Zodiac murders. 

In the evening the killer called the Napa County Sheriff’s office from a pay phone to report the crime and admit that he was the one responsible for it. The pay phone the killer used was found with it off the hook minutes later at the Napa Car Wash on Main Street by radio reporter Pat Stanley which was fairly close to the sheriff’s office. The detectives were able to get a still wet palm print from the phone but could never match it to anyone. 

A man and son who were fishing found Bryan and Cecilia and contacted the park rangers for help. When police arrived Cecilia was still conscious and able to provide them with a description of her attacker. The couple was taken to the Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa, but sadly Cecilia went into a coma during the ride to the hospital and never regained consciousness. She died two days later on September 29, 1969, however Bryan fortunately survived and was able to tell his story to the public. 

On October 11, 1969, a white male passenger entered a cab driven by Paul Stine at the intersection of Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco asking to be taken to Washington and Maple Streets in Presidio Heights. As they were driving the passenger shot Stine once in the head with a 9mm, took Stine's wallet and car keys, and tore a section of Stine's bloodstained shirt. Three teenagers saw this passenger and called the police. The teenagers claimed to have seen a man wiping down the cab before walking away. 

Two blocks from the crime scene two patrol officers saw a white man walking along the sidewalk, and this was believed to be the Zodiac killer though they did not realize at the time. The man was around 35-45 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a crew cut, and slightly older looking than the description the three teenagers gave. For some reason, which I still don’t understand to this day is that the police got a call that they should be on the look-out for a black suspect, so when they saw this white man they were not immediately suspicious. The Wikipedia source says the police just drove by the man walking but other sources I’ve seen have claimed the police officers actually stopped and talked to the man. 

There’s still no suspects at this point and this is technically the last confirmed murder done by the Zodiac. On October 13, 1969, two days after the murder of Paul Stine, the San Francisco Chronicle got another letter from the Zodiac talking credit for killing Stine as well as sending them the torn piece of Stine’s shirt. After this the teenagers who witnessed this man helped the police come up with a composite sketch.  

The next day, October 14 the newspaper received another letter from the Zodiac threatening to kill school children getting off of a school bus. On October 20 a person who claimed to be the Zodiac called the police wanting two lawyers to go on the talk show A.M. San Francisco. During the show someone claiming to be the Zodiac called several times and told them his name was Sam. One of the lawyers scheduled a meeting with the Zodiac but he never showed. 

Another cryptogram came in the mail on November 8, 1969 called the Z-340 cryptogram. This cryptogram went unsolved for 51 years until just recently in December of 2020 it was solved by a team of private citizens such as Sam Blake a mathematician, Jarl Van Eycke, a Belgian programmers and American software engineer David Oranchak. They sent what they found to the FBI who verified their discovery. However, this cryptogram was basically bullshit and didn’t give any clues or leads about who the Zodiac was. 

On November 9, 1969 the Zodiac mailed a letter discussing how two policemen stopped and spoke with him a few minutes after he shot Paul Stine. Some of this letter was published to the paper on November 12. 

So clearly this guy just loves to taunt the police and send letters which I don’t really have any doubt that a random person was sending these letters, I think it was the real Zodiac and he clearly was an attention seeking asshole. 

On December 20, 1969 exactly one year after the supposed first murder the Zodiac committed, he sent a letter asking one the lawyers from the AM show to help him. 

Things seemed to be pretty quiet on the Zodiac’s end for a couple of months which seems kind of weird. Until one night a woman named Kathleen Johns was driving to go visit her mother. It was March 22, 1970 and she had her 10 month old daughter in tow. She was also 7 months pregnant. While she was driving a car behind her kept honking and flashing their lights so she pulled over on the side of the road. The man also pulled over and parked behind her telling her that he noticed her right rear wheel was wobbling. He offered to tighten it for her. Kathleen agreed and when the man finished he drove off. 

When Kathleen went to get back on the road her wheel fell off and she realized that this man had actually loosened the wheel instead of tightening it. The man who “fixed” the wheel came back and offered to drive Kathleen and her daughter to a gas station. While driving they drove past a bunch of gas station yet the man did not stop. When the man stopped at an intersection about 90 minutes later Kathleen actually jumped out of the vehicle with her daughter and hid in a field. The driver searched for her using his flashlight and kept telling her he wouldn’t hurt her, but he eventually gave up and left. Kathleen hitched a ride to a police station to report the man. 

Which ok a couple of things here. First, how the fuck did this woman and her small child stay so quiet as this guy was looking for them in the field with his flashlight? Like the fact that the child did not make A SOUND is amazing. Also after getting in this car with a stranger who most definitely was going to kill her and probably her child, it’s crazy she got in ANOTHER car with a stranger to hitch a ride to the police station but I get that it was the 1970’s and everyone was whack. 

Ok and this part is fucking insane. While Kathleen was reporting this to the police she noticed the composite sketch they had made of the Zodiac and identified that man as the one who she had to jump out of his car. 

Some accounts say this man threatened to kill Kathleen and her daughter though one police report disputes this. There’s also some confusion over whether the Zodiac actually left his car to look for her in the field or not. One report said he did and another says he did not leave his car. 

The Zodiac like we’ve already established was an egotistical maniac who wanted everyone to pay attention to him. He kept sending letters throughout 1970 and at one point actually demanded that people wear “Zodiac buttons” basically like he wanted his own fan club. 

On July 24, 1970 the Zodiac sent a letter claiming responsibility for the incident with Kathleen and her daughter. There was also other letters sent from supposedly the Zodiac claiming other killings though none of these have ever been confirmed to be done by the Zodiac. 

Since this is already a super long story when discussing potential suspects I am only going to talk about one even though there are a few, mostly because this one suspect is the one that is most widely believed to be the Zodiac.

Arthur Leigh Allen had been interviewed by the police very early on in the investigation and also had a lot of search warrants over 20 years. On October 6, 1969 Allen was interviewed by Vallejo police. He had apparently been around the area of Lake Berryessa the day that Bryan and Cecila were attacked and killed (Bryan survived) on September 27, 1969. Allen told the police he had actually been scuba diving at Salt Point that same day. 

In 1971 one of Arthur’s friends, Donald Cheney had reported to police that Arthur often talked about his desire to kill other people and he even referred to himself as “the Zodiac” either before or during the time when the killings took place. Arthur was also known to keep a flashlight secured on his gun so he could see at night according to this friend. 

Arthur Leigh Allen had been honourably discharged from the US Navy in 1958, as well as having been fired from his job being an elementary school teacher in March 1968 after sexual assault allegations with his students came forth. Which if that is true then Arthur was only fired for around 9 months before the Zodiac killings took place. Maybe he began killing due to possible anger from getting fired from this job earlier in that year.

Arthur Leigh Allen also apparently had never had a girlfriend or a wife, and was described as being quite angry towards women probably due to this reason. Perhaps he targeted mostly couples due to his embarrassment or shame of never having a relationship, or perhaps he struggled with talking to women. 

In September of 1972 the San Francisco police got a search warrant for Arthur’s house. Arthur was also described as being “fixated on children” and in 1974 he was arrested for sexually assaulting a 12 year old boy and got 2 years imprisonment. Apparently during this time he was in prison no Zodiac letters were sent. Also classic fucking 70’s punishment, 2 years for sexual assault on a child?! Smh. 

Arthur’s house was searched again in February of 1991. He died in 1992 and the Vallejo police got another warrant and seized property from his place. It does not appear that anything crazy was found to tie him to the Zodiac killings. 

A letter that was sent to the Riverside Police Department from Bate’s killer was typed with a Royal typewriter which was the same brand of typewriter that was found in Arthur’s house in 1991. Arthur also wore a Zodiac brand wristwatch and lived in Vallejo. He also worked a few minutes away from where one of the Zodiac killings took place and he lived close to one of the victims (Ferrin). 

In 2002 the San Francisco police got a partial DNA profile from salvia that was found on stamps and envelopes of the Zodiac’s letters. Remember back in the late 1960’s there was no such thing as being able to link DNA (at least easily) to a person. However, Arthur Leigh Allen’s DNA did not match the DNA found. Don Cheney, the friend who claimed Arthur could have been the Zodiac was also tested but the DNA did not match him either. 

A former police handwriting expert Lloyd Cunningham who worked on the Zodiac case for a long time claimed that Arthur Leigh Allen’s handwriting was nowhere close to that of whoever wrote the Zodiac letters. However, it could be possible that someone else wrote the letters, an accomplice perhaps, and also that an accomplice or someone working closely to the real Zodiac provided salvia for the stamps and envelopes. 

This is a really long case and there’s a lot more details and suspects that are available to research into so I highly suggest you do your own research on this case, it is fascinating. To this day, in 2021, no one has been convicted of the Zodiac killings. To me personally I feel as though the real Zodiac either moved away from the California area, randomly stopped killing (though that seems unlikely), or died or went to prison himself and that is why the Zodiac has never been found. 

I think it is most likely believed that he died because this dude was an egomaniac that wanted credit for his killings. If he continued to kill even if he moved out of the California area he would’ve most likely kept leaving clues and sending letters. If he went to prison I feel like he would’ve confessed at some point since he’s already in there. 

It could be possible that the Zodiac is still alive today but he would be extremely old, at least in his 80’s I’d say, and unless a deathbed confession comes in the next few years I’d say we can pretty much without a doubt say he died in a sudden way and was never able to confess or take credit publicly. I’d say the Zodiac killer’s identity will remain unsolved.

Let me know who you think the Zodiac is, other theories you have, and if there’s any other cases you want me to cover in the future! Stay safe & I’ll have a new true crime story posted soon!

#1968 #1969 #zodiac #thezodiac #thezodiackiller #truecrime #murder

[torturedwarrior]

The Zodiac Killer:

Who is the Zodiac Killer? How many People did he kill? Was he caught? The self-proclaimed Zodiac Killer was linked directly to at least five murders in 1968 and 1969 in Northern California and may have been responsible for more. He taunted the police and made threats by letters sent from 1969 to 1974 to local newspapers, before abruptly ceasing communication. No one was ever arrested for the crimes, despite intensive investigations, and the case remains open. Many books and films have been the subject of the mystery surrounding the murders, including the acclaimed 2007 feature Zodiac by director David Fincher. The Zodiac Killer is the alias of an unknown serial killer living in Northern California from the late 1960s to the early 1970s at least. Between December 1968 and October 1969, the Zodiac murdered victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Napa County, and San Francisco. The killer killed four men and three women aged 16 to 29, with two of the men surviving attempted assassination. The Zodiac itself claimed up to 37 victims were killed. In a series of taunting letters and cards sent to the local Bay Area media, the murderer coined the name "Zodiac." Four cryptograms (or ciphers) were included in the documents. Only one of the four cryptograms sent was eventually resolved.

Zodiac Killer Letters, Symbol & Cipher: on August 1, 1969, each of  three editors received an identical handwritten letter in an envelope without a return address from the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle and Vallejo Times-Herald. Beginning with "Dear Editor: I'm the murderer of the two teenagers at Lake Herman last Christmas," the letters included specifics of the killings of the Zodiac Killer that only the killer could have learned. If the letters were not printed on the papers ' front page, the killer continued to threaten further attacks. Every letter ended with a symbol consisting of a circle with a cross through it, in what would become known as the symbol of the Zodiac Killer

Here are some of The Zodiac Killers victims that had been confirmed and that they police suspected he murdered.

Confirmed Victims:

Although the Zodiac claimed to have committed 37 murders in letters to the newspapers, investigators agree on only seven confirmed victims, two of whom survived. They are:

 ·        David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. Coordinates: 38°5′41.61″N 122°8′38.24″W

·        Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. Coordinates: 38°7′33.56″N 122°11′27.94″W

·        Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. Coordinates: 38°33′48.29″N 122°13′54.43″W

·        Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. Coordinates: 37°47′19.47″N 122°27′25.54″W

Suspected Victims:

The following murder victims are suspected to be victims of Zodiac, though none have been confirmed:

 ·        Robert Domingos, 18, and Linda Edwards, 17: shot and killed on June 4, 1963, on a beach near Gaviota. Edwards and Domingos were identified as possible Zodiac victims because of specific similarities between their attack and the Zodiac's attack at Lake Berryessa six years later. Coordinates: 34°28′11.20″N 120°10′7.14″W

·        Cheri Jo Bates, 18: stabbed to death and nearly decapitated on October 30, 1966, at Riverside City College in Riverside. Bates's possible connection to the Zodiac only appeared four years after her murder when San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery received a tip regarding similarities between the Zodiac killings and the circumstances surrounding Bates's death.[6] College coordinates: 33°58′19″N 117°22′52″W

·        Donna Lass, 25: last seen September 6, 1970, in Stateline, Nevada. A postcard with an advertisement from Forest Pines condominiums (near Incline Village at Lake Tahoe) pasted on the back was received at the Chronicle on March 22, 1971 and has been interpreted as the Zodiac claiming Lass's disappearance as a victim. No evidence has been uncovered to connect Lass's disappearance with the Zodiac Killer definitively.[7]

The Zodiac is also a suspect in the unsolved Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders.[8][9][10]

There is also a suspected third escapee from the Zodiac Killer:

 ·        Kathleen Johns, 22: allegedly abducted on March 22, 1970, on Highway 132 near I-580, in an area west of Modesto. Johns escaped from the car of a man who drove her and her infant daughter around the area between Stockton and Patterson for approximately 1½ hours.[11] Junction 132/I-580 coordinates: 37°38′16.14″N 121°23′55.22″W

The polices nightmare: Lake Herman Road attack: The first assassinations widely attributed to the Zodiac Killer were the killing of high school students Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Boulevard, just within the city limits of Benicia. The pair were about three blocks from Jensen's home on their first date and planned to attend a Christmas concert at Hogan High School. Instead, the couple visited a friend before parking at a local restaurant and driving on Lake Herman Avenue. Faraday parked the Rambler of his mother at about 10:15 p.m. in a gravel turnout, which was a well-known lane of lovers. Shortly after 11:00 p.m., Stella Borges, who lived nearby, found their bodies. The Department of the Solano County Sheriff investigated the crime, but there were no leads. More details include, Robert Graysmith, using available forensic data, postulated that another car would pull into the turnout just before 11:00 pm and park next to the couple. Apparently, the killer left the second car and walked towards the Rambler, possibly ordering the pair out of the Rambler. Jensen appears to have left the car first, but the murderer apparently shot him in the head when Faraday was halfway out. The attacker then shot Jensen in the back five times as she fled; 28 meters from the car found her body. Then the killer drove away.

Lake Berryessa attack: On September 27, 1969, on a small island connected by a sand spit to Twin Oak Ridge, Pacific Union College students Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were picnicking at Lake Berryessa. A white man weighing more than 170 pounds (77 kg) with combed greasy brown hair, about 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), approached them wearing a black executioner-type hood with clip-on sunglasses over the eyeholes and a bib-like device on his chest that had a white three-by-three-inch (7.6 cm) cross-circle logo on it. With a gun, which Hartnell believed to be a.45, he approached them. The man with the cap claimed to be an escape convict from a two-word prison in either Colorado or Montana, where he killed the guard and then stolen a car, explaining that he now needed their car and money to get to Mexico, as the vehicle he was driving was "too hot"

At 7:40, the killer rang out of a payphone to announce the new crime to the office of the Napa County Sheriff. He first told the operator he wanted to "trace an assassination-not a double assassination," before revealing that he was the perpetrator.  Only a few blocks from the Sheriff's office but still 43 miles (27 miles) from the crime scene, the phone was found, still off the hook, by KVON radio reporter, Pat Stanley, minutes later on at Napa Car Wash on Main Street. Detectives could take a still wet palm print from their mobile but could never fit it. When a man and his son heard their cry for help in a nearby cove, they located the victims and sought help in contact with park rangers. They were fishing. The first law enforcement officers to come to the crime scene were Dave Collins and Ray Land detectives of Napa County Sheriff. Cecelia Shepard was aware of the detailed description of the attacker when Collins arrived. The Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa was brought by the ambulance, Hartnell and Shepard. In transportation to the hospital, Shepard lapsed into a coma and never recovered consciousness. Two days later she died, but Hartnell lived to tell his story to the press. Sheriff Inspector of Napa County

The Final Letter that the San Francisco Police gotten from The Zodiac Killer: The Zodiac remained quiet for almost three years following the card "Pines." A letter, published on 29 January 1974 by Zodiac, hailed The Exorcist as "the best satirical comedy I've ever seen" The letter contained a snippet from the Mikado and an unusual lower symbol, which the researchers did not explain. The letter "Me= 37, SF PD= 0" came to an end by Zodiac. So, if The Zodiac Killer was never caught what is the status of the case? The SFPD labeled the case "inactive" in April 2004, citing pressure on caseloads and demands for resources that effectively shut down the case. Sometime before March 2007, however, they reopened their case. In the county of Napa and Riverside the case was then opened. Did the police have any suspects?

In May 2018, the police department of Vallejo announced that it wished to try to collect the DNA from the back of his correspondence. The analysis will take the advanced new method of separating DNA from the adhesive on the back of the stamps, used by a private laboratory. There were five suspected to be The Zodiac Killer which are named: Arthur Leigh Allen, Jack Tarrance, George Russell Tucker, Louis Joseph Myers, and lastly Earl Van Best Jr. The Zodiac killer is supposed to be captured in the same way as the Golden State Killer. A policeman from Vallejo said results were expected in several weeks in May 2018. Nonetheless, no findings were announced by December 2019.  Two famous quotes from The Zodiac Killer: “The police shall never catch me, because I have been too clever for them.”– Zodiac Killer, and “I want to report a murder... no, a double murder. They are two miles north of Park Headquarters. They were in a white Volkswagen Kharmann Ghia. I'm the one that did it.”– Zodiac Killer.

Work Cited:

 "Zodiac Killer - Letters, Cipher & Suspects - Biography." Famous Biographies & TV Shows. 14 Oct 2017. Web. 13 Dec 2019. <http://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer>.

"Zodiac Killer Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2019. Web. 13 Dec. 2019. <https://www.quotes.net/authors/Zodiac+Killer+Quotes>.

"Zodiac Killer - Wikipedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 12 Dec 2019. Web. 13 Dec 2019. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer>.

#zodiac killer #murder #serial killer

[thatswhatshedoes]

Brendan Riley’s Solano Chronicles: Vallejo’s first woman cop was tough — with heart of gold

Rose Milestein was Vallejo, California's first female officer – known for being as tough as nails but able to spot "a spark of decency" in everyone ... helping girls turn their lives around. – Vallejo Times-Herald's Brendan Riley

#Social Activism

[zodiacdemystified]

Part 1: The Murders

Although the Zodiac claimed to have committed 37 murders in letters to Bay Area newspapers, investigators agree on only seven confirmed victims, two of whom survived. I’m going to first break down the seven confirmed victims and what happened to each so that we have a basic understanding of what the police and new papers were investigating.

Lake Herman Road Murders

Where: Lake Herman Road within the city limits of Benicia, California

When: December 20, 1968

Victims: Betty Lou Jensen (killed) and David Faraday (survived); high school students

Details: The couple were on their first date and planned to attend a Christmas concert at Hogan High School, about three blocks from Jensen's home. The couple instead visited a friend before eating at a local restaurant and then drove out on Lake Herman Road. At about 10:15 p.m., Faraday parked his mother's Rambler in a gravel turnout, which was a well-known lovers' lane. However, this area is remote and could have only been known as a lover’s spot by someone who was familiar with the area of Benicia.

It is postulated that another car pulled into the turnout, just prior to 11:00 pm and parked to the right the couple. The killer apparently exited the second car and walked toward the Rambler, possibly ordering the couple out of the Rambler (it is suspected that a warning shot was fired into the right rear window of the vehicle). Jensen appeared to have exited the car first, yet when Faraday was halfway out, the killer apparently shot him in the head. The killer then shot Jensen five times in the back as she fled; her body was found 28 feet from the car. Shortly after 11:00 p.m., their bodies were found by Stella Borges, who lived nearby.

Zodiac Confirmation: On August 1, 1969, about a month after the Zodiac’s next attack, three letters prepared by the killer were received at the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Francisco Examiner. The nearly identical letters took credit for the shootings at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs. We’ll dive into the details of the letters later on, but the author of these letters was believed to be the murderer and attempted murderer of Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday (respectively) because the letters contained information about the murders that only the murderer could have known.

Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday:

Crime Scene Photo:

Crime Scene Diagram:

Blue Rock Springs Murder

Where: Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, California

When: Just before midnight on July 4, 1969

Victims: Michael Renault Mageau, 19 (survived), and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22 (killed)

Details: Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau drove into the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, four miles (6.4 km) from the Lake Herman Road murder site, and parked. While the couple sat in Ferrin's car, a second car drove into the lot and parked alongside them but almost immediately drove away. Returning about 10 minutes later, this second car parked behind them. The driver of the second car then exited the vehicle, approaching the passenger side door of Ferrin's car, carrying a flashlight and a 9 mm Luger. The killer directed the flashlight into Mageau's and Ferrin's eyes before shooting at them, firing five times. Both victims were hit, and several bullets had passed through Mageau and into Ferrin. The killer walked away from the car but upon hearing Mageau's moaning, returned and shot each victim twice more before driving off.

Zodiac: On July 5, 1969, at 12:40 a.m., a man phoned the Vallejo Police Department to report and claim responsibility for the attack. The caller also took credit for the murders of Jensen and Faraday six and a half months earlier. Police traced the call to a phone booth at a gas station at Springs Road and Tuolumne, located about three-tenths of a mile (500 m) from Ferrin's home and only a few blocks from the Vallejo Police Department. Ferrin was pronounced dead at the hospital. Mageau survived the attack despite being shot in the face, neck and chest.

As stated, on August 1, 1969, three letters prepared by the killer were received at the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Francisco Examiner. Each letter also included one-third of a cryptogram (a type of puzzle that consists of a short piece of encrypted text) which the killer claimed contained his identity. The killer demanded they be printed on each paper's front page or he would "cruse around all weekend killing lone people in the night then move on to kill again, until I end up with a dozen people over the weekend."

The Chronicle published its third of the cryptogram on page four of the next day's edition. An article printed alongside the code quoted Vallejo Police Chief Jack E. Stiltz as saying "We're not satisfied that the letter was written by the murderer" and requested the writer send a second letter with more facts to prove his identity. The threatened murders did not happen, and all three parts were eventually published.

On August 7, 1969, another letter was received at The San Francisco Examiner with the salutation "Dear Editor This is the Zodiac speaking." This was the first time the killer had used this name for identification. The letter was a response to Chief Stiltz's request for more details that would prove he had killed Faraday, Jensen and Ferrin. In it, the Zodiac included details about the murders which had not yet been released to the public, as well as a message to the police that when they cracked his code "they will have me."

Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau:

Crime Scene Diagram:

Lake Berryessa Murder

Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969.

Where: Lake Berryessa in Napa County, California

When: September 27, 1969 (a little over a month after the last Zodiac letter)

Victims: Bryan Calvin Hartnell (survived), 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard (killed), 22; college students

Details: Two Pacific Union College students Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were picnicking at Lake Berryessa on a small island connected by a sand spit to Twin Oak Ridge. A man in a black hood approached them with a gun, which Hartnell believed to be a .45. The hooded man claimed to be an escaped convict from a jail where he had killed a guard and subsequently stolen a car, explaining that he now needed their car and money to go to Mexico, as the vehicle he had been driving was "too hot". The man had brought precut lengths of plastic clothesline and told Shepard to tie up Hartnell. The killer checked the ties, and tightened Hartnell's bonds after discovering Shepard had bound Hartnell's hands loosely. Hartnell initially believed this event to be a bizarre robbery, but the man drew a knife and stabbed them both repeatedly, Hartnell suffering six and Shepard ten wounds in the process. The killer then hiked 500 yards back up to Knoxville Road, drew the cross-circle symbol on Hartnell's car door with a black felt-tip pen. After hearing their screams for help, a man and his son who were fishing in a nearby cove discovered the victims and summoned help by contacting park rangers. 

Napa County Sheriff's deputies Dave Collins and Ray Land were the first law enforcement officers to arrive at the crime scene. Cecelia Shepard was conscious when Collins arrived, providing him with a detailed description of the attacker. Hartnell and Shepard were taken to Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa by ambulance. Shepard lapsed into a coma during transport to the hospital and never regained consciousness. She died two days later, but Hartnell survived to recount his tale to the press.

Zodiac: At 7:40 p.m., the killer called the Napa County Sheriff's office from a pay telephone to report this latest crime. The caller first stated to the operator that he wished to "report a murder - no, a double murder," before stating that he had been the perpetrator of the crime. The phone was found, still off the hook, minutes later at the Napa Car Wash on Main Street in Napa by KVON radio reporter Pat Stanley, only a few blocks from the sheriff's office, yet 27 miles from the crime scene. Detectives were able to lift a still-wet palm print from the telephone.

Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard:

Crime Scene Diagrams:

Note Left by Zodiac on victim’s car door:

Presidio Heights Murder

Where: Cross section of Washington and Cherry Streets in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco.

When: October 11, 1969, around 10pm

Victim: Paul Lee Stine; Cab Driver

Details: On October 11, 1969, a white male passenger entered the cab driven by Paul Stine at the intersection of Mason and Geary Streets (one block west from Union Square) in San Francisco requesting to be taken to Washington and Maple Streets in Presidio Heights. For reasons unknown, Stine drove one block past Maple to Cherry Street; the passenger then shot Stine once in the head with a 9mm, took Stine's wallet and car keys, and tore away a section of Stine's bloodstained shirt tail. 

This passenger was observed by three teenagers across the street at 9:55 p.m., who called the police while the crime was in progress. They observed a man wiping the cab down before walking away towards the Presidio, one block to the north.

Two blocks from the crime scene, patrol officer Don Fouke and Eric Zelms, responding to the call, observed a white man walking along the sidewalk east on Jackson Street and stepping onto a stairway leading up to the front yard of one of the homes on the north side of the street; the encounter lasted only five to ten seconds. The police radio dispatcher had however initially alerted officers to be on the lookout for a black suspect, so Fouke and Zelms drove past him without stopping. 

This was the last officially confirmed murder by the Zodiac Killer.

Zodiac: On October 13, the San Francisco Chronicle received a new letter from Zodiac containing a piece of bloody shirt and taking credit for the killing.

Paul Lee Stine:

Crime Scene Photo:

San Francisco Chronicle:

[catgirlcicero]

The Zodiac Killer, 1968-69:

Picture this: July 4th of 1969. Fireworks exploding over San Francisco Bay. A seemingly pleasant and wonderful night for Michael Mageau, who had brought his date with him to this display - beautiful 22-year-old Darlene Ferrin. The two were sitting in Darlene's car at Blue Rock Springs in Vallejo, when a vehicle pulled up beside them. The driver got out, shone a torch into their car, and began to fire a pistol at them; unfortunately Ferrin died, but Mageau survived. Soon after, a man phoned the Vallejo PD saying, "I want to report a murder. If you will go 1 mile east on Columbus Parkway, you will find kids in a brown car. They were shot with a 9-mm Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye."

On July 31 letters and coded messages arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, and the Vallejo Times-Herald. They contained a sinister threat: if the ciphers did not appear on the newspapers' front pages by the following afternoon, the author would go on a killing rampage. The letters claimed responsibility for Ferrin's murder and another double homicide committed in Vallejo in December 1968, which had an identical modus operandi.

After some hesitation, the papers prices their portions of the cipher. A second letter arrived at the Herald on August 4th, in which the author referred to himself as "The Zodiac". By August 8th 1969, a couple living in Salinas decoded the 408 symbol cryptogram, in which the author said that he hunted people. The Zodiac described killing as a thrilling experience and claimed that after his death, the victims would be his slaves in the afterlife.

On the afternoon of August 27th, Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were relaxing at Lake Berryessa in Napa when they were approached by a gunman in a strange black mask and costume. He bound them with rope and stabbed them repeatedly. Hartnell survived to recount the details, but Shepard died. Before leaving, the killer drew the Zodiac symbol on their car door.

The final murder definitively linked to the Zodiac occurred in San Francisco on October 11th 1969. That night, cab driver Paul Stine was shot in the head by a passenger with a pistol. The killer ripped away a bloodstained section of Stine's shirt, stole his wallet and keys, and wiped the car down. Although he was spotted by three witnesses, their differing accounts of his appearance and colour ensured that he was never arrested. Police recovered a bloody fingerprint and black gloves from the taxi, but the killer remained unidentified.

The killer sent a letter to the Chronicle two days later with a bloody piece of Stine's shirt. The letters continued until 1978, but the Zodiac killer was never caught.

Prime suspects

Of all the names to surface in the hunt for the killer, that of Arthur Leigh Allen has been the most mentioned. He was questioned in 1969.

Key points as to why he was suspected:

Was given a Zodiac brand wristwatch by his mother, which featured the cross-in-the-circle symbol.

Lived only a few minutes from the scenes of the crimes.

Owned the same brand of ammunition as those used by the Zodiac.

Told friends he would like to murder random couples and taunt police with coded letters.

In 2002, 10 years after his death, Allen's DNA was compared to a saliva sample taken from one of the Zodiac's envelopes. They didn't match, so he was excluded by the police, even though there was very much definitive evidence against him. However, it later emerged that Allen asked other to lick envelopes for him, because he claimed that the taste made him feel nauseous. To this day, the case hasn't been solved and will probably remain unsolved.

#true crime #the zodiac killer #zodiac #crime #serial killer #killers

[bigyack-com]

Vallejo Official's Removal Is Sought After He Throws Cat During Zoom Meeting

The city Planning Commission meeting in Vallejo, Calif., last week followed the same humdrum pattern of so many municipal meetings: There was the Pledge of Allegiance and a roll call, followed by various reports.That posed the usual challenges: Commissioners with microphones muted when they were trying to be heard, some of them appearing half offscreen at times or talking over one another.But things took an unexpected turn about 2 hours and 24 minutes into the session after one of the commissioners, Chris Platzer, was asked if he had any comments after reviewing a project application.“Yes, this is the section where you can, Commissioner Platzer,” the commission’s chairman said.The cat meowed loudly again. “OK, first, I’d like to introduce my cat,” Mr. Platzer said, lifting it close to the camera and then, with two hands, tossing it off screen.The cat squeaked as it was being thrown, and a thud could be heard.One commissioner on the videoconference put his hands to his forehead and covered his eyes in response.The meeting concluded 26 minutes later, but that was hardly the end of it.Bob Sampayan, the mayor of Vallejo, which is about 30 miles north of San Francisco, and Robert McConnell, a City Council member and the liaison to the commission, have asked for the council to consider Mr. Platzer’s immediate removal at a meeting on Tuesday, a city spokeswoman, Christina Lee, said on Monday.“The city does not condone the behavior that Vallejo Planning Commissioner Chris Platzer exhibited during the April 20th Planning Commission meeting,” she said. “This type of behavior does not model the core values of the City of Vallejo.”After the planning meeting adjourned, Mr. Platzer was heard using expletives, she said, adding that the mayor and Mr. McConnell discussed his behavior immediately after the episode and called for his removal within 48 hours.Stephanie Bell, senior director of cruelty casework for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the group was prepared to place the cat “in an understanding, loving home” if Mr. Platzer’s “lack of patience or understanding” made cat guardianship inappropriate.“The cats in our care rely on us for everything, including food, respect and affection, and no one should ever punish them for seeking our attention,” she said. “While cats are known for agility, this cat was thrown and could have slammed into furniture, the wall or the ground.”As of Monday morning, the city had not received a formal resignation from Mr. Platzer, Ms. Lee said; however, The Times-Herald of Vallejo reported on Saturday that it had received an email from him suggesting that he was stepping down.Mr. Platzer, who could not be reached on Monday, was appointed to the volunteer position in August 2016 and his term was set to expire in June.“I did not conduct myself in the Zoom meeting in a manner befitting of a planning commissioner and apologize for any harm I may have inflicted,” he wrote in the email, The Times-Herald reported. “I serve at the pleasure of the council and no longer have that trust and backing.”He added, “We are all living in uncertain times and I certainly, like many of you, am adjusting to a new normalcy.”The Zoom episode was one of the latest to surface as officials adjust to remote working. In Florida, a judge this month admonished lawyers for getting too lax in their dress during their videoconference court appearances. Read the full article

#03technologysolutions #0dbtechnology #0gtechnology #2000stechnology #3technologybets #3technologybetsgenpact #3technologydrive #3technologydrivemilpitasca95035 #3technologydrivepeabodyma #3technologyltd #3technologyplace #3technologywaynorwoodma #3dprintingtechnews #3dtechnews #3dtechnologynews #4technologycircuithallam #4technologycomponentsofcrm #4technologydr #4technologydrive #4technologydrivelondonderrynh03053 #4technologydrivepeabodyma #4technologydrivewestboroughma01581 #4technologywaysalemma #42technologynews #5technologydrive #5technologydrivewallingfordct #5technologymission #5technologyparkcolindeeplane #5technologytools #5glatesttechnologynews

[smallpressdistribution]

Feast yr eyes & shelves on November’s SPD Recommends *Backlist*!

Ten more titles that continue to rock our world:

1. Real: The Letters of Mina Harker and Sam D’Allesandro - Dodie Bellamy and Sam D’Allesandro

“Although Dodie was leading ‘in competition for grossout — but that’s such a yawn since being female all the cards are stacked on my side,’ in the end Sam won for shock and extremity — he died. Dodie’s last letter (1993) is a homage to him (’To look as precisely as possible at the everwavering presence…’) and a series of inventions on mortality in the time of AIDS. The prose is pitched so high it’s thrilling. The letter is a summit of writing on sex and death, a garden in which the void prospers. ‘Sam, I never dreamed that playing dead could make you feel so alive.’” —from the preface by Robert Glück

2. Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan

"Sharply critical of nationalism, separatism, chauvinism of all kinds, as tendencies toward narrowness and isolation, she was too aware of democracy's failures to embrace false integrations. Her poetic sensibility was kindred to Blake's scrutiny of innocence and experience; to Whitman's vision of sexual and social breadth; to Gwendolyn Brooks' and Romare Bearden's portrayals of ordinary black people's lives; to James Baldwin's expression of the bitter contradictions within the republic." —Adrienne Rich

3. The Vineyard - Fanny Howe

"If I could talk about divinity to the boss / it would not be pretty." —Fanny Howe, from 'Servitude'

"The breath that animates Howe's poetry seems to blow, not from a contemporary world of 'materials' and 'individuals' but from one of radical mystical belief." —San Francisco Chronicle

4. Heavenly Breakfast: An Essay on the Winter of Love - Samuel R. Delany

“When you and I live so closely that touch and smell are suddenly half of what we communicate, new laws govern the interchanges as different as strong and weak particle interactions...” —Samuel R. Delany

"In HEAVENLY BREAKFAST we see the genesis of the alternative living arrangements portrayed in Delany's novel Dhalgren (1974)." —James Warner

5. The Granite Pail: The Selected Poems of Lorine Niedecker

"One's first impulse, after awe, on reading THE GRANITE PAIL is a double dose of shame: shame at not being more familiar with her work; shame at ever having complained of the narrowness of one's life." —Carolyn Kizer

6. The Black Heralds - Cesar Vallejo (tr. Rebecca Seiferle)

From the publisher: Vallejo radically and fundamentally challenges the canon of Western culture as no other Latin American writer. THE BLACK HERALDS is Vallejo's first book and contains a wide range of poems, from love sonnets in which he struggles to free his erotic life from the bounds of Spanish Catholicism to the linguistically inventive sequence, "Imperial Nostalgias," where he parodies with considerable savagery the pastoral romanticism of Indian and rural life.

7. Areas Lights Heights: Writings 1954-1989 - Larry Eigner

"Live thinking—rather than 'theory'—about poetry & prose & living & dying, often starting from or turning into poetry as easily as rivers & puddles become clouds become rain....Starting from anywhere at hand (often with 'input' from 'media'), ending somewhere we're surprised to get to." —Jackson Mac Low

8. The New World Border - Guillermo Gómez-Peña

"Gómez-Peña muses, often tongue-in-cheek, on matters of race, nationality, language, and identity. With a heady mix of pop culture, provocative iconography, political satire, ethnic stereotypes, and guerrilla theory, he explores 'the territory of cultural misunderstanding.'" —The Village Voice

9. Useful Knowledge - Gertrude Stein

"USEFUL KNOWLEDGE is pleasant and therefore it is very much to be enjoyed." — Gertrude Stein in her 'Advertisement for this Book.'

10. THE PAPER CHASE - John Jay Osborne, Jr.

Robert Clark, former Dean of The Harvard Law School, has said "THE PAPER CHASE is one of the most important books ever written about legal education in the United States."

#Talisman House #Copper Canyon Press #Roof Books #City Lights Publishing #Station Hill Press of Barrytown #Gnomon Press #Bamberger Books #Lost Roads Publishing #Peninsula Road Press #spd recommends backlist #smallpress #poetry

[newstechreviews]

(VALLEJO, Calif.) — A planning commissioner of Vallejo, California, has resigned after throwing his pet cat and apparently drinking a beer during a Zoom meeting between city officials that was made public, according to a newspaper report.

During the April 20 teleconference of the city’s Planning Commission, Chris Platzer announced, “I’d like to introduce my cat,” and then picked up his pet before suddenly tossing the animal off-screen.

Platzer was seen sipping from a green bottle during the meeting, the Times-Herald reported. After the conference ended he could be heard making derogatory remarks. “I’m going to call bull— on you little b—s,” according to the original commission meeting video released by the Northern California city.

In an email to the Times-Herald on Saturday, Platzer said he has resigned from the planning commission, effective immediately. The resignation came days before the City Council was set to consider a resolution removing him from the seven-person panel, the newspaper said.

“I did not conduct myself in the Zoom meeting in a manner befitting of a planning commissioner and apologize for any harm I may have inflicted,” Platzer wrote in the email. “I serve at the pleasure of the council and no longer have that trust and backing. I extend my gratitude to those who have supported me during my tenure. I have always felt that serving Vallejo in a voluntary position is honorable because Vallejo is worth serving. We are all living in uncertain times and I certainly, like many of you, am adjusting to a new normalcy.”

Vallejo spokesperson Christina Lee told the Times-Herald the city was still attempting to confirm if Platzer had officially resigned from the commission. Platzer couldn’t be reached for comment via phone on Saturday.

Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan said on Friday that decorum needs to be followed for each and every public meeting.

“This hurts the credibility of the city,” Sampayan added. “What happens if a developer is watching the meeting (and sees that)? They would obviously have concerns about the city.”

#Blogger

[phooll123]

New top story from Time: California Official Resigns After Tossing Cat, Apparently Drinking Beer and Cursing During Zoom Meeting

(VALLEJO, Calif.) — A planning commissioner of Vallejo, California, has resigned after throwing his pet cat and apparently drinking a beer during a Zoom meeting between city officials that was made public, according to a newspaper report.

During the April 20 teleconference of the city’s Planning Commission, Chris Platzer announced, “I’d like to introduce my cat,” and then picked up his pet before suddenly tossing the animal off-screen.

Platzer was seen sipping from a green bottle during the meeting, the Times-Herald reported. After the conference ended he could be heard making derogatory remarks. “I’m going to call bull— on you little b—s,” according to the original commission meeting video released by the Northern California city.

In an email to the Times-Herald on Saturday, Platzer said he has resigned from the planning commission, effective immediately. The resignation came days before the City Council was set to consider a resolution removing him from the seven-person panel, the newspaper said.

“I did not conduct myself in the Zoom meeting in a manner befitting of a planning commissioner and apologize for any harm I may have inflicted,” Platzer wrote in the email. “I serve at the pleasure of the council and no longer have that trust and backing. I extend my gratitude to those who have supported me during my tenure. I have always felt that serving Vallejo in a voluntary position is honorable because Vallejo is worth serving. We are all living in uncertain times and I certainly, like many of you, am adjusting to a new normalcy.”

Vallejo spokesperson Christina Lee told the Times-Herald the city was still attempting to confirm if Platzer had officially resigned from the commission. Platzer couldn’t be reached for comment via phone on Saturday.

Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan said on Friday that decorum needs to be followed for each and every public meeting.

“This hurts the credibility of the city,” Sampayan added. “What happens if a developer is watching the meeting (and sees that)? They would obviously have concerns about the city.”

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[swipestream]

Sensor Sweep: Dime Detective, Jules Verne, Warhammer, Triplanetary, Rambo!

Science Fiction Fandom (Wastland and Sky): At last we reach the end of this series. It’s been quite a ride! We’ve gone through the development of genre fiction from the early Gothic Horror days up until the then-current New Wave movement and everything in between. For such a straightforward book it has certainly gone all over the map. It is only a shame the author had agendas of his own.

  Pulp Magazines (Pulp Flakes): Inspector Allhoff is one of the stars of Dime Detective in my estimation. He’s a police inspector who lost his legs to injuries sustained in a botched raid on a gangster hideout. The loss of his legs warps him into a surly, misanthropic person who lives across the street from Police Headquarters and solves mysteries while guzzling endless cups of coffee. This particular story, set during World War 2, starts off with a surlier than usual Allhoff missing his coffee due to rationing (one pound of coffee per person per week).

  Cinema (Old Style Tales): Since its publication in 1898, Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw” has absorbed our collective imaginations. It is a story that pits innocence against corruption, desire against duty, and children against ghosts. While it has been filmed over a dozen times for both the small and silver screens, not all of those adaptations have been worth watching. Listed here are eight of the most visually, dramatically, and thematically compelling adaptions of its central story.

  Fiction (DMR Books): Rung Ho! was Talbot Mundy’s first novel.  It was serialized in Adventure magazine and then published in book form by Charles Scribner in 1914.  Well received by the critics, the book sold well; it is a coming of age story for its hero and heroine, set against the backdrop of the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857.  You can find it in any number of collections or here, at Roy Glashan’s Library.

  Gaming (Mirror): Warhammer: Chaosbane is a game a few Diablo fans and Warhammer fans might have on their radar and for all the right reasons. We had a chance to play the closed beta of the upcoming action RPG.

Chaosbane is takes place in the Warhammer fantasy battle universe. Set directly after a conflict called the Great War of Chaos, there are remaining factions of the evil Chaos forces still attacking the human city of Nuln. It’s our hero’s job to eradicate these small factions and save the city from destruction.

  Fiction (Forbes): Novelist Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in the French city of Nantes. Today he is known as a pioneer of the science-fiction genre, imagining a submarine traveling twenty thousand leagues under the sea, a space projectile heading to the moon and a fantastic journey into the depths of our world. One hundred and fifty years after Verne’s visions, humans have walked on the moon, nuclear submarines can travel under the sea and we have started to explore the mysteries of the deep earth.

  Comic Books (Gaming While Conservative): The latest issue of Alt(Star)Hero dropped last week, and everything was so hectic I didn’t get a chance to review it.  Well, now I’ve got a chance and here’s a stunner for you – I liked it!

  Fiction (Fantasy Literature): As I mentioned in my reviews of the first two books, Triplanetary(1948) and First Lensman (1950), Smith originally wrote volumes 3 – 6 first, only adding Books 1 and 2 later, when he felt that some kind of explanatory prequel had become necessary. And while it is true that the second section of Triplanetary had been written as early as 1934, it was only 14 years later that that section was rewritten to make it fit into the LENSMAN cycle.

  Cinema (Frontier Partisans): Sly Stallone is saddling up — literally — for a coda to the Rambo movie franchise that will now span 37 years.

According to Variety, Rambo: Last Blood (get it?)…

“…centers on Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo crossing into Mexico and taking on a violent cartel when the daughter of one of his friends is kidnapped. ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ also stars Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta and Yvette Monreal. Adrian Goldberg is directing from a screenplay by Stallone and Matthew Cirulnick. Stallone, who was 36 when the first film premiered, will be 73 at ‘Last Blood’s’ release.”

The movie is slated for a September 2019 release.

  Cinema (Dark Herald): The reviews are coming in for Captain Marvel and they are…surprisingly accurate in a few corners.  I was expecting everyone to tow the party line.  And while quite a few have.  There are several other shills that are off the reservation.

The RT score for Captain is a shockingly low 83%.

  Art (Northwest Adventures): More covers from Adventure.

  Cinema (Perilous Worlds): Who are the biggest names in the rise of sword-and-sorcery? Most are the authors who burst open fantasy literature in the pulp pages and later in paperbacks: Robert E. Howard, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock. Almost as important are the artists whose book covers and comic illustrations realized the genre’s visceral visuals: Frank Frazetta, Barry Windsor-Smith, Roy Krenkel, Boris Vallejo.

One name rarely mentioned among the sword-and-sorcery influencers is Steve Reeves. He wasn’t an author or artist. He was a bodybuilder turned actor.

Cinema (The Wrap): As Amazon Studios prepares to return to Middle-earth with its new “Lord of the Rings”series, Fox Searchlight sheds light on the man behind the fantasy epic, releasing a new trailer on Wednesday for its upcoming biopic of author J.R.R. Tolkien.

    Sensor Sweep: Dime Detective, Jules Verne, Warhammer, Triplanetary, Rambo! published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[unsolved100701]

The Zodiac Killer

On December the 20th 1968, in Benicia California, two high school students Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday were shot and killed. The couple were on their first date and planned to attend a concert at Hogan High School, close to Jensen’s home, but the couple instead visited a friend before stopping at a local restaraunt and then driving and stopping on Lake Herman Road. Witnesses noticed the young couple huddled together in the front seat of Faraday's car between around 10:15 and 11:00 p.m. Nothing about the couple seemed unusual to those who saw them, but shortly after 11pm, their bodies were found by a local who lived nearby. Betty Lou had died from five gunshot wounds in her back. David had been shot at close range in the head, and was still breathing when found, only to die shortly later on route to the hospital.

A man named Bill Crow and his girlfriend told detectives that 45 minutes earlier, they were driving around the same place as Jensen and Faraday were. They reported that they were followed in their car by a white Chevy, but managed to lose it after making a sharp right turn at an intersection. Two hunters also reported seeing this white Chevy parked on Lake Herman road, where the two teenagers were later shot. Robert Graysmith, a political cartoonist and true crime author, made use of available forensic data at the scene. He theorised that around 11pm, the killer parked their beside Faraday’s car and most likely shot Faraday first, then Jensen as she was trying to run away. The killer then drove off. The police were left with no leads.

On the 4th of July 1969, Darlene Ferrin and Micheal Mageau were parked at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course in Benicia (four miles from the Lake Herman Road murder site) at around 12pm. A car then parked behind Ferrin’s car, and the driver got out, carrying a flashlight and a luger pistol. As the stranger approached, he immidiately began shooting at the couple, shooting them both. When authorities arrived, both Ferrin and Mageau were still alive, but Ferrin died before being able to reach the nearest hospital. Mageau, however, survived and was able to give a description of the attacked to the authorities; he was a white man, 26-30 years old, short, heavyset, about 5’8” and 195-200 lbs with short light brown curly hair.  

The next morning at 12:40 am, an unidentified man phoned the Vallejo Police Department to report and claim responsibility for the attack (as well as the murders of Jensen and Faraday months earlier). Police traced the call to a phone booth at a gas station less than a mile from Ferrin’s home and just blocks from the police department itself.

"I wish to report a double murder. If you will go one mile east on Columbus Parkway to a public park, you will find the kids in a brown car. They have been shot by a nine-millimeter Luger. I also killed those kids last year. Good-bye” - Caller

Around a month later on the 1st of August, the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Examiner recieved letters from someone claiming to be the killer. The letters were nearly identical, and they all claimed to have been responsible for the shootings at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs. Each letter also included one-third of a mysterious cryptogram which the killer claimed contained his identity. The writer demanded that the letters be published on the front page of every newspaper, otherwise they would go on a “kill rampage”. All three parts were eventually published by the papers, and fortunately, the threats were not carried out. Police investigators stated publicly that they had doubts about the legitimacy of the letters.

"I want you to print this cipher on the front page of your paper. In this cipher is my idenity. If you do not print this cipher by the afternoon of Fry.1st of Aug 69, I will go on a kill ram-Page Fry. night.” - First letter to the San Francisco Chronicle

3 days later, a second letter was recieved by the San Francisco Examiner from the self-proclaimed killer. It began with, “Dear editor, this is the Zodiac speaking…”, the first time the writer used the name ‘Zodiac’ (a word commonly associated with astrology). The ‘Zodiac’ included details about the murders that had not yet been released to the public, proving his involvement in the crime. It also stated that when the authorities cracked his code, his identity would be revealed and “they will have me”. The letter was signed with a black cross-circle symbol.

"On the 4th of July: I did not open the car door, The window was rolled down all ready. The boy was origionaly sitting in the front seat when I began fireing."

On August the 8th, the code was cracked by a couple in Salinas, CA. It read:

"I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forrest because man is the most dangeroue anamal of all to kill something gives me the most thrilling experence it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl the best part of it is thae when I die I will be reborn in paradice and thei have killed will become my slaves I will not give you my name because you will try to sloi down or atop my collectiog of slaves for my afterlife ebeorietemethhpiti”.

The next confirmed Zodiac killing was on the 27th of September in Napa, California. College students Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell were having a picnic at Lake Berryessa. A fisherman later discovered the couple tied up with stab wounds, and so he immediately called the police. They were both still alive when medical help arrived just over an hour later (due to their remote location). Although Shepard unfortunately died after lapsing into a coma two days later, Hartnell survived and was able to give police a detailed account of the events as well a description of the attacker.

He told police that they were approached by a white man, about 5’11”, weighing more than 170lbs with combed greasy brown hair, wearing a black executioner’s-type hood with clip-on sunglasses over the eye-holes, carrying a semiautomatic pistol. He claimed to be an escaped convict from a Montana prison, and demanded their car and their money in order to escape capture by fleeing to Mexico. The couple did not hesitate to give him their carkeys and their money. He then instructed Shepard to tie up Bartnell, and provided her with precut pieces of a clothesline in order to do this. Bartnell did this, to then be tied up herself by the man. He then proceeded to stab Hartnell six times and Shepard ten times. The man then walked casually back to Hartnell’s car where he wrote, "Vallejo/12-20-68/7-4-69/Sept 27-69-6:30/by knife”, along with the cross-circle symbol of the ‘Zodiac’. These were the details of the three (first) confirmed 'Zodiac’ Killer attacks. At 7.40pm that evening, an unidentified caller contacted the Napa Country Police Department from a pay telephone, just a few blocks away (as in the Vallejo case). The caller identified themselves as the killer, telling officer David Slight in a low, monotone voice, “I’m the one who did it”. Detectives located the exact phone used minutes later, still off the hook, but with no suspect to be seen. They were, however, able to lift a palm print from the surface of the telephone but were unable to match it with any current suspects.

Two weeks later, on the 11th of October 1969, San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine picked up a customer at at the intersection of Mason and Geary Streets requesting to be taken to Washington and Maple Streets in Presidio Hights. Shortly after beginning his journey, Stine was shot in the head by the passanger, killing him. The killer then preceded to steal his carkeys, wallet, and to tear off a section of his bloodstained shirt. This was all observed by three pedestrians across the street at 9.55pm, who immidiately called the police. They described the killer as a white male, 25-30 years old, with stocky build and a crew cut. There was a large search conducted, but somehow there was a mistake made as to the killer’s race and the police were searching for a black male. It has never been reported how this mistake was made. It was later determined that two blocks away from the crime scene, the police drove past a man matching the pedestrians’ original description, but they thought they were looking for a black male, they did not consider him a suspect. The three witnesses worked with a police artist to produce a composite sketch of Stine’s killer. The San Francisco Police Department investigated an estimated 2,500 suspects over a period of years.

Shortly after, another letter from the ‘Zodiac’ was received by the Chronicle containing a section of Stine’s shirt as proof that he was the killer. It also contained a threat about killing schoolchildren on a school bus. On the 8th and 9th of November, the Chronicle received another two letters from the ‘Zodiac’. The first contained another cryptogram (which has never been decoded to this day), and the second was 7 pages long and also contained a section of Stine’s shirt. The ‘Zodiac’ stated that two policemen stopped and actually spoke to him, around 3 minutes after he shot Stine.

On the 22nd of March 1970, eight-months pregnant Kathleen Johns was driving to meet with her mother with her 10-month-old daughter. A car behind her began honking its horn and flashing its headlights on Highway 132 near Modesto. When she pulled over, a man got out of the car and informed Johns that her wheel was loose on her car. He offered to help tighten the lug nuts, but instead loosened them, so when Johns pulled forward to re-enter the highway the wheel came off completely. The man came back and offered Johns a ride to the nearest gas station in hope of fixing the wheel. Johns accepted, but began to become anxious during the journey when the man drove past several nearby gas stations. Johns described the drive as “silent, aimless driving around” in which the man would change the subject when she inquired about why they were not stopping. Her and her daughter were able to escape when the car stopped at an intersection; they jumped out of the car and hid in a nearby field. She then received help from a local who helped her get to a police station in Paterson. Whilst there, she saw a ‘wanted’ poster of the ‘Zodiac’ killer, and by looking at the police composite Sketch (that was produced after the murder of Paul Stine), she was able to identify the man who kidnapped them as the 'Zodiac’. Later, her car was found gutted and burned. This is the last confirmed sighting of the ‘Zodiac’. However, throughout the years, Johns’ account of that night has changed from her original statement, and this has led people to question the legitimacy of what she has told the authorities. For example, in the report that she made to the police she stated that after they ran into the field the man did not leave his vehicle. But in her account to Paul Avery of the Chronicle, she stated that her abductor left his car and searcher for her with a flashlight, saying he wouldn’t hurt her.  

The ‘Zodiac’ continued to communicate with the authorities throughout 1970 via letters to the press. On April the 20th, the ‘Zodiac’ sent a letter to the Chronicle which included the words “My name is…”, followed by a 13-character cipher. He stated that he was not responsible for a recent bombing of a police station in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. On the 28th of April, he wrote another letter to the Chronicle, threatening to bomb a bus if the paper didn’t publish his writings. He also stated that he wanted to see people wearing “some nice Zodiac buttons”. Around 3 months later on the 26th of June, he wrote another letter expressing his upset at the fact that he had not seen people wearing Zodiac buttons. He also took credit for another shooting in this letter - "I shot a man sitting in a parked car with a .38.” - possibly refering to the murder of Sgt. Richard Radetich on the 19th of June, as he was found shot in the head with a 38-caliber pistol. The San Francisco Police Department denies the Zodiac was involved in this shooting, but it remains unsolved. A month later, on the 24th of July, the ‘Zodiac’ took responsibility for the abduction of Kathleen Johns and her daughter (how four months later).

Around 3 months later on the 27th of October, Paul Avery (the key reporter in the Zodiac case for the Chronicle), received a Halloween card with the words, “you are doomed”. It was signed with a letter ‘Z’ and the Zodiac’s cross-circle symbol. Later, he recieved another letter urging him to investigate the similarities between the known Zodiac murders and the murder of college student Cheri Jo Bates years earlier, in 1966. On October 30th of that year, Bates was studying at the Riverside City College library until it closed at 9pm. Neighbours reported to hearing a scream at around 10:30pm, and she was found dead the next morning. She was found between two abandoned houses nearby, brutally beaten and stabbed to death. Her car was parked at the library and this had been damaged, with the distributer coil and the condenser pulled out. At the scene they found a man’s Timex watch displaying the time 12:24pm, a size 10 heel-print, fingerprints and a palm print, skin tissue underneath the victims fingernails and hair and blood in her hands. Then, 6 months later, Bates’ father and the Riverside Police Department all received handwritten letters that were nearly identical. They read, “she had to die there will be more”, signed with the letter “Z”.

In 1974, several years later, the last letter from the Zodiac was received by ‘The Chronicle’. The Zodiac concluded the letter with a new score, “Me=37, SFPD = 0”.

The case remains open in some jurisdictions, but the San Francisco Police Department has designated it unsolved an inactive. More than 2,5000 suspects have been investigated, yet nobody has been charged. Detectives continue to receive phone calls regarding theories and speculation, but with all leads eventually going cold. There are several popular theories as to who the Zodiac could be:

In 2014, a man named Gary Stewart published the book ‘The Most Dangerous Animal of All’, in which he proclaimed his father, Earl Van Best Jr was the Zodiac. Stewart pointed out that he was similar to the Zodiac’s physical description, and claims that a scar on his finger matches that in a fingerprint left at a Zodiac crime scene. A man named Chris Harris responded to this by claiming that he saw Best at a diner in 1969, near the site of one of the killings. According to Harris, Best turned to him and said, "you have no idea what it’s like to have to kill”.

The second popular suspect is Richard Gaikowsi, a newspaper journalist and filmmaker. He was involved in the running of the ‘Good Times’ newspaper at the same time as the infamous Bay Area murders. The main operations day of the Good Times newspaper, when its staff were on heightened workload, was the only day of the week the Zodiac Killer failed to mail a letter to authorities. That day was Wednesday. Richard Gaikowski trained as a medic when he was in the army prior to working at the newspaper. After the brutal murder of taxicab driver Paul Stine in Presidio Heights on October 11th 1969, the killer tore off a neat, rectangular tailpiece of the victims shirt. This was a practice medical personnel were taught in the field, especially during war, when bandages and tourniquets were at a premium and not a practice that would have been familiar outside of this field. He resembles closely the famous composite sketch of the Zodiac killer, and upon hearing his voice in later years Nancy Slover, the police dispatcher who took a call from the killer at 12.40 am on July 5th 1969, approximately 40 minutes after the murder of Darlene Ferrin and attempted murder of Michael Mageau at Blue Rock Springs Park, said that it was the same voice that had spoken to her way back in 1969. 

A third popular suspect is Laurence Kane. He was involved in a car accident in 1962, which resulted in serious brain damage, influencing his behaviour. His alleged involvement in the abduction of Kathleen Johns, who managed to escape the Zodiac with her infant daughter across a field. She later identified her attacker as the same man portrayed in a composite sketch from the Presidio Heights murder, which hung on the wall of the police station in Patterson. She claimed it was none other than Lawrence Kane, chosen from a six picture line up. The letters ‘Kane’ can also be seen in a Zodiac’s cipher, staring with “my name is…”. Also in that cipher are three number 8’s, 3 times 8 is 24, and Kane was born in 1924. When Kane’s handwriting was tested against the Zodiac’s, the tests came back inconcluive.

The main suspect in the case, however, is Arthur Leigh Allen. Robert Graysmith (a political cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle) wrote two books on the case, heavily implying that the killer was Allen. He had been reported in the vicinity of the Lake Beryessa attack in September 1969, but claimed he was scuba diving on the day of the attacks, despite the fact that his family claimed he returned to home covered in blood with a bloody knife in his car. He came to police attention again when his friend Donald Cheney reported to police that Allen had often spoken of his desire to kill people, under the name ‘Zodiac’. In light of this information, the police decided to interview Allen. In the interview, Allen claimed his favourite book was ’The Most Dangerous Game’; a book about a man who hunted humans, and a book referenced by the Zodiac in his first letter. Allen also wore a Zodiac brand wristwatch. When searching his home, the police discovered a ‘Royal typewriter with an Elite type’, the same brand used by the Zodiac for his typed letters. In 1974, Allen was convicted of child molestation, for which he spent 3 years in jail. It just so happens that during these 3 years, no Zodiac letters were received by anyone. In 1987, a San Jose jail inmate named Ralph Spinelli claimed that Allen admitted to him that he was the murderer of Paul Stine. When Mike Mageau (who survived the second Zodiac killing) was interviewed by detectives, claimed (after seeing a photograph) that it was Allen who shot him. In 1992, Allen was found at home, dead from a suspected heart attack. His DNA was compared against the 2002 DNA extracted from stamp saliva on several Zodiac letters; it was not a match. However, it should be noted that Allen favoured having other people lick his stamps for him, providing a possible reason for the lack of DNA evidence to convict Allen. Additionally, when the police took his fingerprints when they searched his home, they did not match the bloody prints recovered from the Paul Stine crime scene. They also had Allen undergo handwriting analysis, but this was inconclusive.

Personally, with no suspect being 100% compatible with what we know about the Zodiac, it is hard to say that there was only one killer; it suggests there were several copycat killers. With the case being broadcasted so widely in the media, many in the area knew lots about the Zodiac, and so it would be easy for a stranger to copy the killer by adopting his mannerisms. However, Allen and Kane seem to have the most evidence against them, making them very significant in the question of, ‘who was the Zodiac killer?’.

[bigyack-com]

An Official’s Removal Is Sought After He Throws Cat During Zoom Meeting

The city Planning Commission meeting in Vallejo, Calif., last week followed the same humdrum pattern of so many municipal meetings: There was the Pledge of Allegiance and a roll call, followed by various reports.That posed the usual challenges: Commissioners with microphones muted when they were trying to be heard, some of them appearing half offscreen at times or talking over one another.But things took an unexpected turn about 2 hours and 24 minutes into the session after one of the commissioners, Chris Platzer, was asked if he had any comments after reviewing a project application.“Yes, this is the section where you can, Commissioner Platzer,” the commission’s chairman said.The cat meowed loudly again. “OK, first, I’d like to introduce my cat,” Mr. Platzer said, lifting it close to the camera and then, with two hands, tossing it off screen.The cat squeaked as it was being thrown, and a thud could be heard.One commissioner on the videoconference put his hands to his forehead and covered his eyes in response.The meeting concluded 26 minutes later, but that was hardly the end of it.Bob Sampayan, the mayor of Vallejo, which is about 30 miles north of San Francisco, and Robert McConnell, a City Council member and the liaison to the commission, have asked for the council to consider Mr. Platzer’s immediate removal at a meeting on Tuesday, a city spokeswoman, Christina Lee, said on Monday.“The city does not condone the behavior that Vallejo Planning Commissioner Chris Platzer exhibited during the April 20th Planning Commission meeting,” she said. “This type of behavior does not model the core values of the City of Vallejo.”After the planning meeting adjourned, Mr. Platzer was heard using expletives, she said, adding that the mayor and Mr. McConnell discussed his behavior immediately after the episode and called for his removal within 48 hours.Stephanie Bell, senior director of cruelty casework for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the group was prepared to place the cat “in an understanding, loving home” if Mr. Platzer’s “lack of patience or understanding” made cat guardianship inappropriate.“The cats in our care rely on us for everything, including food, respect and affection, and no one should ever punish them for seeking our attention,” she said. “While cats are known for agility, this cat was thrown and could have slammed into furniture, the wall or the ground.”As of Monday morning, the city had not received a formal resignation from Mr. Platzer, Ms. Lee said; however, The Times-Herald of Vallejo reported on Saturday that it had received an email from him suggesting that he was stepping down.Mr. Platzer, who could not be reached on Monday, was appointed to the volunteer position in August 2016 and his term was set to expire in June.“I did not conduct myself in the Zoom meeting in a manner befitting of a planning commissioner and apologize for any harm I may have inflicted,” he wrote in the email, The Times-Herald reported. “I serve at the pleasure of the council and no longer have that trust and backing.”He added, “We are all living in uncertain times and I certainly, like many of you, am adjusting to a new normalcy.”The Zoom episode was one of the latest to surface as officials adjust to remote working. In Florida, a judge this month admonished lawyers for getting too lax in their dress during their videoconference court appearances. Read the full article

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[executivegoldenticket779-blog]

April 30 2018 4:00am 

Serial Killer and Badman Frank Tomas Cavallihez El Sabio Earl Hassfaz found guilty of murder in the 1st degree illegally used DHU Felix Druid Taft Taitague  1913 as a disguise to kill over 462,000 people since he removed the corpse from a cemetery in South San Francisco in 1997(2002).Finally found dead! Died without corpse.

#NBC Live #CBS Live #MTV Live #Solano County News Live #Vallejo Times Herald Live #SF Gate #Ny Post Live